But I'll Wait for Something More
by Alexandra Shinai
Summary: Roman Reigns nearly drowns, but just before the end, something, or someone, saves him. He has no proof anyone saved him, other than the memory of a blond streak. Everyone thinks he's insane when he leaves to find the stranger who saved his life, but the stranger has problems of his own that Roman will only make worse. Roman Reigns was never one to listen. Rolleigns fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Like Darkness Falling, if this continues, summary will improve with story. I've only written the first chapter, because I'm still unsure about this. I angsted for so long over whether to write this, whether to post this, etc. If the reception to this isn't so good, I will be shelving it permanently, just because I am so insecure and unsure about it.**

 **To those of you who only know me for Darkness Falling and are worried I'm no longer updating it, that is not the case. I am very busy with school and decided to stay up late to write and post this. I will write/post more Darkness Falling when I am not so busy.**

 **To those of you who didn't bother reading the summary... tl;dr rolleigns cinderella-style merman fic**

"You fucking asshole, I hate you so much."

Jimmy laughs, picking up the sand-covered soccer ball from the ground, dusting it off a little before tucking it under his arm and against his hip. "You're just sayin' that 'cause you're mad I beat you. Twice."

"That may or may not be true," Roman begrudgingly admits, tugging a hand through his hair in an attempt to get it out of his eyes, the warm Florida breeze tossing each strand around carelessly until his hair resembles more of a rat's nest than the sleek mane he likes it to be.

Of course, the one day he'd forget to bring a hair tie with him would be the day it had to be windy as hell.

Roman may hate nature sometimes.

"Wanna go for one more?" Jimmy asks, cocking his head at Roman. The two of them had decided, earlier in the day, that the weather was nice—it almost always is in Pensacola—and they should go outside and do something. They've been fucking around on the beach for hours, acting like children instead of the grown men society insists upon them being, forgetting about every responsibility and stressor waiting for them back home.

It's nice. Roman thinks it would've been even nicer if they could've gotten Jey and Dean to come, but they insisted on staying home, doing god knows what. He never knows what the hell they're up to anymore, and at this point, he thinks he doesn't want to know.

The sun is just starting to set, casting a dusky pink glow over the ocean waves lapping at the shore. This is one of the things Roman loves most about his hometown – the way Pensacola Beach looks at sunset, glowing softly with the last embers of daytime slowly flickering out until the night unfolds over the beach and leaves no glow but the moon.

"Nah," Roman says. "You're just gonna try to dump my ass in the ocean again."

Jimmy grins, but he doesn't argue, setting the dusty soccer ball he'd been holding on the ground. "What do you wanna do, then?"

Roman looks back at the sun setting, the ethereal glow of the ocean waves. There's a dock extending out into the ocean that he'd loved to sit on as a child, watching the sun set with his mom. Sunsets had always been his thing, and nothing changed as he became an adult.

Even now, he's still got a soft spot for sunsets. "Could go sit on the dock. Talk about… things."

"What kinda things? Better not start interrogating me, uce. I get enough of that from Naomi. I ain't need it from you, too."

"Of course not," Roman says, but Jimmy knows him too well, already five steps ahead of him and heading straight for the dock. Roman follows him, maybe a little bit too similar to an eager puppy in his strides.

They head to the end of the dock and sit down, the way they used to when they were kids, with their legs dangling off the edge, the water lapping at the shore several feet below them.

They sit in silence for what might only be five minutes, but what feels like an hour to Roman, taking in the view, each of the two trapped in their own heads.

Finally, Roman dares to ask the question that's been swirling around under his tongue since Jimmy brought her up. "How are things with Naomi, by the way?"

Jimmy groans. "Do we have to talk about that, man?"

"Sorry, man. I just wanted to know. She's practically my sister-in-law."

Jimmy's quiet for a few more seconds before he stands up abruptly, dangerously close to the edge of the dock. "'S just… she ain't been that good to me lately."

Roman winces sympathetically; he's met Naomi, and he's all-too-familiar with her ever-present dominating attitude. He can't imagine how Jimmy feels.

"What do you mean?"

Jimmy shuts down on him. "Don't wanna talk about it."

Roman feels like he's too small for the conversation, sitting down on the edge of the dock by himself with Jimmy looming over him, so he stands up, facing his cousin. Jimmy's expression is dark, stormy. Roman braces himself for what's to come.

"I'm just worried about you," Roman says. It's true—Jimmy's changed since he married Naomi. He only seems happy when he's not around her, and when she's mentioned, any peace within him disappears.

Roman knows the descent—he's been through it. He would never wish it upon anyone, and especially not someone who's like a brother to him.

"It ain't your business," Jimmy snaps, and there it is—the Jimmy that Roman knows is gone.

Just for the time being, hopefully. Roman's never sure.

"I think it is, man. We're like brothers. I'm just lookin' out for you," Roman says, stepping closer.

Jimmy shoves him away, hard enough that he wobbles and stumbles and nearly falls off the edge of the deck, catching his balance at the last second.

When Roman rights himself, he stares at Jimmy with wide eyes. "What the _fuck?_ Are you trying to kill me? I could've just fallen off and busted my head open or something!"

Jimmy's shaking, and Roman's lost.

"Just hear me out," Roman pleads, stepping toward Jimmy again.

In return, Jimmy shoves him again, harder than before, and all is lost when Roman can't right himself at the edge of the dock and he falls over it.

He's fallen from the dock before – jumped off of it as a child – but this is different. It's different when you're not expecting it, when you're not prepared, when you crash into the water and it wraps itself around you like a vice and tries to pull you into its darkest depths.

The water is swallowing him down, an enormous gulf wrapped around his skin and bones, pulling him, down, down, down, and everything's getting darker.

He can hear the blood rushing in his ears – or maybe that's just the water – but all he sees is the light disappearing, the surface getting farther and farther away, and he is drowning.

The thought plunges through his consciousness, a sharp needle bursting his bubble of false peace, and he scrambles desperately for nothing, trying to pull himself up, up, up, but there is nothing to grab onto, and it is too late.

He closes his eyes and surrenders.


	2. Chapter 2

"You shouldn't have done that."

"Well, I couldn't just let him die!"

"You let all the others die, Seth. Don't try to play the savior card on me. I know you – you're just interested in shiny, pretty new toys, and you found one you like, and you saved him 'cause you wanna keep him for yourself, not because he was gonna die."

Seth falters at that, forced into silence by the harsh truth he'll refuse to accept until the day he himself dies. Beside him, Jimmy smiles, but it's a saccharine smile that makes Seth want to punch him. But Jimmy's the only one who understands the whole goddamn mess they're in, because he was right alongside Seth the entire time.

"What're you gonna do with him, honey? Gonna keep him down here so we can share him? I don't think he'd last very long, though… hmm. Maybe find a way to get him to keep coming back? If he's not spooked by the whole nearly-drowning thing in the first place, that is."

Seth frowns at him. "Shut up, Jacobs. He probably won't even remember when he wakes up."

"And that's for the best. We don't want people to know about this… even if it might get us out of here. He'd sound like a fucking idiot, anyway, if he wakes up and starts telling everyone he knows that a merman saved him from drowning."

"I think he'll be back, though. I think he'll remember something. Enough."

"In your dreams, Seth. You just want to get laid by someone who isn't me."

"No, I'm just tired of this," he insists, barely-repressed emotions simmering under the surface of his false-composed tone. "Tired of being down here. Tired of not knowing a way out. Tired of… everything," he decides.

"And you think I'm not? I love you, but goddamn it I am so fucking sick of being around you, but you're all I've got down here. If I was alone I'd be fucking crazy by now. I have no fucking idea how we ended up here, how we ended up like this, but if I could figure out what the hell caused all of this, I'd erase it in a fucking heartbeat."

Seth just blinks at Jimmy, mouth hanging open like he's been slapped into shock. The outburst is so different from the Jimmy Jacobs he's familiar with – cool, calm, collected, flirting with anything with a heartbeat and genitals.

But this one, the one that Seth catches a glimmer of when Jimmy starts shouting at him, is tired, frustrated, angry, lonely.

Seth is, too.

* * *

Roman wakes up shivering and soaked, with the distinctly uncomfortable feeling of wood pressing into his back. Jimmy's face appears above him, creased with concern, until he evidently realizes that Roman's awake, breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Shit, uce. I don't know what the hell came over me, but I thought you were gone, man. I was 'bout to jump in there and save you myself 'til you came back up."

For a long moment, Roman has no idea what the hell his cousin is talking about. But it all floods back into his mind with nearly enough force to induce a headache, and he groans, lifting his arms to rub at his temples to massage away the phantom pain. He doesn't seem injured – he's not sore, even though it's a little hard to breathe – just confused.

"Someone… someone saved me." His voice is rougher than usual, throat sensitive from the harsh rasp of the saltwater he'd accidentally swallowed.

"No way, man. Ain't no one here. Just us. You went down on your own and came back up on your own."

"But…" Roman falters, because he sounds like he's hallucinating, and he probably is, because he's got no proof. None at all. But he remembers teetering on the edge of consciousness, and he remembers someone grabbing at him, pulling him upwards, whispering soft words of encouragement as if he was a child learning to swim, and disappearing once he'd breached the surface of the water.

And he remembers the person had brown hair, with a large blonde streak that stood out like a halo in Roman's mind.

"There was someone there. I _saw_ him. I would've prob'ly died if it weren't for him."

Jimmy purses his lips and shakes his head as Roman sits up. "I think you hit your head on a rock or somethin'. No way there was anyone there."

"I know what I saw."

"Prob'ly imagining things. We ought to go, anyway, it's gettin' dark and Naomi's gonna be worried about me."

Roman sighs and turns his body to look briefly out at the ocean that seems to extend endlessly out beyond the edge of the dock, an ocean that looks vast and empty.

Something tells him there was someone out there, looking out for him, and even though he doesn't push the idea further, he tucks it away in the corner of his mind, like a piece of paper stowed away in his pocket, making a mental note to open it back up later and examine it, very carefully.

Roman's never wrong.

* * *

"I told you he would remember! I _told_ you!"

"And no one believes him, and if he's got half a brain in that thick head of his, he won't come back here looking for you."

"But what if he does?"

"He won't find you. You really should remember, Sethie baby, that even if someone were to find you, to find us, realize they weren't hallucinating, and accept us for what we are… you're mine. All mine. Remember?"

And as Jimmy's arm snakes around his waist and his mouth lays claim to Seth's neck, Seth tips his head forward in a nod, albeit a reluctant one.

He wants something new.


End file.
